Chapter Twenty-nine
LUCAS
Isat cross-legged on the bank of the river that ran alongside Callum and Aster’s cabin. It was mad that yesterday I’d thought I was hearing a leaking gutter, when it had been the babbling water outside.
Callum had explained a lot more about my newly boosted senses after me, him, and Aster awoke from our nap yesterday. I could control how much I let in, could stretch further if I concentrated.
He’d said sound was the easiest to master.
That was what I was supposed to be working on right now.
Identifying the river was easy, as was my heartbeat and that of the goat called Tim, who was snuggled up beside me.
I absently rubbed his grey head as I half-concentrated on picking out Aster and Callum’s heartbeats inside the cabin, the rustling of wind through the grass, faint hints of voices and various mechanical whirs far away in the village.
Playing with my newly advanced senses was cool and incredibly surreal, but I couldn’t keep my mind on the task. Ever since I’d woken the second time yesterday and practically inhaled a pot of stew while Callum explained the ways of the wolfies, I hadn’t been able to stop thinking about Kit.
He wasn’t allowed up here at the moment because everything was too new and I needed time to adjust around those who were familiar. No one could be more familiar than Aster, and turning me into a beastie gave Callum a pass to hang around too.
I didn’t know how to explain that Kit being here would be fine. More than fine. Good. The best.
I wanted to learn how to hear with my new ears by searching out his heartbeat and listening to the breath coasting over his lips.
I wanted to know how he smelt with my new nose, understand the different scents of emotions by sniffing out his.
I wanted to test my strength with him, run across the mountains at his side.
Callum was a good teacher, patient and wise, but I didn’t want to explore all of this with him.
I didn’t get a say though. Callum was the one who’d bitten me and Aster was my best friend.
While I’d slept through my body healing and changing, they’d made decisions on my behalf.
Kit had been sent off down the mountains, and I wasn’t going to see him again until I’d figured out all this wolfy stuff and could be trusted to rejoin the wider island community.
‘Concentrate,’ I muttered, slightly hindered by a horn digging into my thigh as another goat joined us. The legendary Albert. I patted his head, scrubbing my fingers through the thick brown and white fur between his ears, before closing my eyes again and listening.
‘I’m going to go chat to Lucas,’ Aster said.
I twisted around, but he hadn’t crept up on me.
My heart thumping, I huffed out a laugh.
This was why it was important for me to master my new abilities before I left the mountains.
Went home to Kit. I couldn’t be jumping at noises from the opticians that shared the ground floor of the cottage my surgery was in and zoning out of what the people – and animals – in my examination room were telling me.
The cabin door opened behind me and I tried not to flinch. Aster and Callum would get the deciding votes on when I could leave the mountains and they wouldn’t let me if every loud noise made me jump, but the goats betrayed me. Fed up of my constant twitching, they skittered off along the riverbank.
‘Hello, my newly wolfified friend.’ Aster sat down beside me, his knee nudging mine when he crossed his legs. ‘How are you feeling on this fine afternoon?’
‘Good.’ Callum had warned me to be careful lying around other wolves, that they would know if I was fibbing or telling half-truths. It was weird to hear my own heart miss half a beat.
It wasn’t a full lie. I did feel good. But I was also frustrated.
Aster didn’t need to know that. Salty sadness hadn’t left him since I’d woken up sandwiched between him and Callum.
It would take time for him to get over my almost death, to come to terms with having made a huge life decision for me.
As much as Aster was a wrecking ball, he didn’t mean to cause damage.
When he took control, he did it for the benefit of everyone around him.
I was glad to be alive, if changed, but it would take him a while to see that, to understand that I was fine now.
He didn’t need to shoulder my angsting over how far away Kit was as well.
‘How are you?’ I asked, at the same time Aster blurted out, ‘I have something to tell you and I’m worried you’ll hate me.’
If we hadn’t grown up together, I would have been impressed at how he fit so many words into the same space as mine.
‘What is it?’ I asked, at the same time he said, ‘I’m fine. Should be fine. Will be fine.’
I pressed my lips shut, rather than carry on the game.
When we were younger and sometimes when we were not so much younger, this could continue for a long time.
I didn’t want to play though, not when Aster was scared to tell me something.
I rested my hand on his knee and silently invited him to go on.
He grabbed my hand between both of his. ‘Promise you won’t hate me?’
‘I could never hate you.’ My heartbeat remained steady and sure.
Aster nodded with his whole upper body, then dropped my hand so that he could lean forwards and press his fingers into the grass. ‘It’s easier to show you.’
He closed his eyes. His brow furrowed, then a weird pulse went through me. Just as I opened my mouth to ask what was happening, bright tangles of green appeared on the river bank. Vines sprang out of the soft ground. Leaves burst into life and tiny white flowers bloomed.
‘Aster,’ I breathed. ‘You’re doing that?’
He sat back, hands held palm up. His skin was tinged green by the grass. One deep breath, and tiny sparks of blue lightning crackled from his fingers.
‘Fuck.’ I reared back, like any normal person would when their best friend suddenly spouted electricity.
My reaction was more than justified. Aster had once tripped over the air then thrown a whole bowl of baked beans over me.
It was a legitimate response to be scared of him magicking lightning from nowhere.
The sparks dulled and his shoulders slumped. ‘For once, I would really like to reveal I’m a witch and for someone to say, Oh my gosh. That’s fucking awesome.’
I nudged my shoulder into his, unafraid now the electricity had been put away. ‘Oh my gosh. That’s fucking awesome.’
Aster’s bad moods were like a wisp of cloud passing over the sun. Barely there one second, gone the next.
He bobbed, like the energy inside of him couldn’t be contained. ‘It is, isn’t it?’
‘When did you learn you’re a witch? Was it when you came to Doughnut?’ There was something about this island. We came here as humans, and transformed into something else.
Aster stilled, then bit his lip. ‘I’ve maybe kind of been a witch my whole life but before I came here I couldn’t do much of anything and Doughnut awakened my powers,’ he said in a rush.
‘Oh.’ My shoulders’ turn to slump. ‘Wow.’
I hadn’t thought Aster kept anything from me. He talked so much and in such detail about basically every moment we didn’t spend together and many that we did, so I’d assumed I knew everything about him.
‘I’m sorry I didn’t tell you before.’ Aster crowded into my side and wrapped his arms around my neck.
‘Dad made me promise not to blab because being an actual witch probably wouldn’t bother lots of people but it would freak out some, and the more people that knew the more risk there was of being discovered and burned at the stake or whatever.
’ He nuzzled into the side of my face. ‘You better believe the argument we’ve had the most, after when is an appropriate bedtime for a grown man, is whether or not I could tell you.
I figured I can now, since you’re a mystical being too. Just don’t tell Dad.’
I wriggled an arm free to pull him into my side. I’d always loved cuddling Aster before I turned into a werewolf, but now there was a whole extra layer to it. I liked his scent on me, the reassurance his warmth gave that he was close and safe.
‘I get it.’ The initial shock had worn off that Aster was capable of keeping such a huge secret from me.
In its place was understanding. I now had a massive secret I wouldn’t be able to share with anyone, not unless they were super trusted.
Aster had already told me the story of what happened to Callum’s family.
I wasn’t about to let history repeat itself by telling anyone who might go on a homicidal rampage that I was a bit more wolfy than the average human.
And it wasn’t like I hadn’t been keeping a secret from Aster for years. If I had my way, he would never know about my inability to feel attraction.
At least I wouldn’t have to hide my new wolfy nature from Kit. He was a beastie too. It would have been strange to live with him again and try to hide my baby wolfness.
‘Can I borrow your phone?’ Mine had broken during the storm. Most the stuff in my backpack was ruined. ‘I’d like to call Kit, if that’s okay.’
Aster wiggled out of our hug and laid flat on the grass to extract his phone from his jeans. He jumped to his feet, just as Tim and Albert leapt to where his head had been laid on the grass seconds ago.
‘You two are nutters,’ he shouted as they ran away. He held out his phone. ‘Call whoever you want, but don’t wander too far. There’s a patch of signal around the cabin that’s not huge.’
I nodded. Didn’t say the only person I was interested in talking to was Kit.